La Société des Artistes Indépendants

La Société des Artistes Indépendants

Artistic Movements, Periods and Styles in 5 Points

We could make this publication thanks to small donations. How is 3 minutos de arte supported? 

La Société des Artistes Indépendants

• When what we call “modern art” developed, it clashed again and again with art taught in the academies and exhibited in the official salons. That is why, since the mid-nineteenth century, we have found exhibitions or salons that bring together artists who are contrary to “official” art and who seek to be independent. (Already in 1855, it existed the Pavilion of Realism, created by Courbet, a milestone for Realism and a big step for art to move towards modernity).
• The Société des Artistes Indépendants (Society of Independent Artists) was formed in Paris in 1884. The idea was to exhibit the new, the independent, and with a challenging slogan: “Sans jury ni récompense” (without jury or reward). A phrase that, beyond its charm, conveys the spirit of what modern art is: art is based on the artist’s own vision, on his own experience; it does not have to respond to what others “teach and/or judge how things should be.”
• In his first exhibition, called the First Salon of the Independents (1884), the works that stood out the most were those of the pointillists (who at the same time were among the main founders of the society). The painting by Seurat chosen to illustrate this publication was exhibited that year, and the most famous work of pointillism, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte (also by Seurat), was exhibited at the Second Salon in 1886.
• Then, over the years, the Fauves, the Cubists, and the great avant-garde artists of the early twentieth century would pass through its halls. For at least three decades (until the outbreak of World War I in 1914), this Salon des Indépendants set the artistic trend.
• As a synthesis of the Parisian Salons (where, in short, the work of an important part of the artists of Western art has been known), we have:• The Paris Salon (since 1667) was the official art salon. During the 19th century, until the beginning of modernity, it was the major event of Western art.
  • The Salon des Refusés (from 1863) was the salon authorized by Emperor Napoleon III for the works rejected by the Paris Salon. A crucial event for the birth of modern art.
  • The Salon des Indépendants (from 1884). Organized by the Société des Artistes Indépendants. It showed avant-garde tendencies.
  • The Salon d’Automne (from 1903). Along with the Salon des Indépendants, it exhibited the new (Fauvism “was “born” there, for example).

Image: Bathers at Asnières (1884). Georges-Pierre Seurat.

Prominent founders: Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Paul Signac, Henri-Edmond Cross, Charles Angrand.

Some artists that participated in the first exhibition (the First Salon des Indépendants): Seurat, Redon, Signac, Cross, Gauguin, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Renoir.

Recommended links:

Post-Impressionism.

Pointillism.

Salon des Refusés of 1863.

Timeline: from Neoclassicism till the end of the 19th century.

Characteristic Elements of Post-Impressionist Painting.

When does Modern Art Start?

You can also find more material using the search engine.

Would you like to support 3 minutos de arte?

Our project.